It is impossible to read ancient sources without a sense of awe. And especially the literary efforts of the past. Whether one finds oneself on the battlefield of Troy, treks along with Gilgamesh in search of immortality, or watches with astonishment the rise and fall of mighty dynasties in the Mahābhārata, one cannot but be convinced that it is the sheer quality of these works which preserved them throughout the ages and made it possible to become the affordable paperback editions that we can buy at the local airport.¹ However, as you might have gleaned from the tone of that last sentence, the reasons that we admire those ancient texts today, manifold as they are, often have not much to do with the reasons that they used to be appreciated.² Seldom has this been more obvious than with Thucydides’ famous account of the Peloponnesian War. Some of the modern uses of his text might even have baffled many of those reading it in centuries past!

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